Episode 270: Season of Change

Tech Talk Today

The push for encryption backdoors is back on, why Valve has 1,700 CPU's working non-stop, and the big Netflix move Apple is about to pull.

Then we'll cover a study that shows just one percent of Reddit users cause 75 percent of the drama, follow up on some topics, and discuss our thoughts for Season 2.

We set off to SCaLE this year with a goal in mind, but quickly realized the trip and this season of Tech Talk Today, we're going to be about something entirely different.

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Links:

• Feds pushing new plan for encrypted mobile device unlocks via court order — The Department of Justice is pushing for a new industry proposal that would grant law enforcement access to encrypted digital devices with a warrant, according to a new report by The New York Times.
• Valve has 1,700 CPUs working non-stop to bust CS:GO cheaters | PC Gamer — Right now there are about 600,000 5v5 CS:GO matches per day, and to evaluate all players in those matches Valve needed about four minutes of computation, amounting to 2.4 million minutes of CPU effort per day. You need about 1,700 CPUs to do that daily work.
• Face ID Deemed Too Costly To Copy, Android Makers Target In-Display Fingerprint Sensors Instead — Android phone makers are 'rushing' to implement fingerprint sensors under the display for upcoming handsets," reports 9to5Mac, citing a new report from Digitimes. "Android manufacturers have decided that recreating the 3D facial recognition used by iPhone X is simply too costly to include, and are instead focusing on implementing Qualcomm's ultrasonic fingerprint scanners.
• State Department Seemingly Buys $15,000 iPhone Cracking Tech GrayKey — On March 6, the State Department ordered an item from Grayshift for just over $15,000, according to a purchase order listing available on the U.S. government's public federal procurement data system.
• Since October, Apple has signed 12 TV projects, nine of them “straight-to-series”; sources say the company aims to roll them out between March and summer 2019 — Since October, Apple has made deals for 12 projects, nine of them “straight-to-series” orders — an aggressive method of creating new programming that skips the pilot-episode stage.
• Deals Like AT&T-Time Warner Won't Solve TV-Streaming Mess - Bloomberg — Media companies are scrambling to get bigger and create their own online-video services, which don't make much money or even meet consumers' needs.
• One percent of Reddit users cause 75 percent of the drama — In the self-published research from Srijan Kumar, Jure Leskoec, William Hamilton, and Dan Jurafsky of Stanford University, “intercommunity conflict” is defined as “negative sentiment to comment in another community.” These users wouldn’t necessarily qualify as trolls or sockpuppets; they’re instigators, posting links to other subreddits and encouraging other users to target, harass, and fight with users on that subreddit.